About the Team

The Director will oversee a mix of in-house and outsourced creative professionals and manage creative operations, workflow management, and external agency partnerships. The team blends one in-house editor who reviews and edits nearly everything ULI publishes, with a roster of contracted creative professionals who work closely and consistently with the team. They're integrated into projects day to day and are managed through RoboHead, the team's creative request and traffic system. It's a small, high-functioning group, and it's in good shape: the brand is established, the workflows work, and the job now is to lead, refine, and protect what's already working well, not to build it from scratch.

The Role

Reporting to the SVP, Membership Experience and Marketing, the Director, Brand Marketing & Creative Services leads the team, day to day: one direct report plus a team of contracted designers, and a traffic manager. This position combines brand leadership with hands-on management of creative development, helping to strengthen ULI's reputation, increase awareness and engagement, support membership growth, and advance organizational priorities.

The Director will develop and execute brand initiatives, oversee enterprise-wide creative, both written and visual, brand standards, and ensure communications and marketing materials reflect ULI's mission, values, and global brand positioning, including coordinating with, and supporting, regional teams.

What You Will Do

Key Responsibilities

Creative Operations and Direction

• Lead and optimize creative intake, workflow, prioritization, resource allocation, and production processes, including overseeing the administration of RoboHead, ULI's creative project management platform.
• Oversee the development of, and provide creative leadership for, creative concepts, campaigns, publications, presentations, reports, videos, digital experiences, and marketing assets.
• Ensure creative excellence across all brand touchpoints and maintain high standards of quality, innovation, and effectiveness.
• Manage project prioritization and stakeholder expectations across a diverse portfolio of stakeholders.
• Oversee and manage vendor relationships, production partners, agencies, freelancers, and creative technology platforms and their providers.
• Ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, and aligned with organizational priorities.
• Develop and manage the annual brand and creative services budget.
• Stay informed of design, content, technology, and digital marketing trends and incorporate best practices into ULI's creative approach.

Brand Strategy and Activation

• Develop and maintain brand governance frameworks, guidelines, toolkits, templates, and standards.
• Provide strategic consultation to stakeholders on branding, naming, messaging, and visual identity.
• Ensure brand consistency across channels, programs, products, services, and communications.
• Serve as the brand representative for planning and execution of major initiatives, campaigns, anniversaries, convenings, and enterprise priorities.
• Monitor brand health, including awareness, perception, satisfaction, engagement, and advocacy.
• Partner with senior leaders to grow brand awareness through campaigns, activations, or other activities at the global, region, or local level.
• Oversee brand activation strategies for major meetings, conferences, events, and strategic initiatives, including the development of onsite messaging and signage at major meetings.
• Optimize the implementation of brand standards across digital platforms, websites, social media, mobile experiences, and emerging channels.

Team Leadership and Stakeholder Management

• Lead Creative Services, including one direct report and a team of contracted designers, and a traffic manager who work closely and consistently with ULI.
• Build team capabilities in emerging areas including digital content, AI-enabled creative workflows, and multimedia storytelling.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for enterprise-wide brand and creative services needs.
• Build strong relationships with leaders and stakeholders across all business functions and regions.
• Partner with regional teams and district councils to ensure consistent implementation of the brand while accommodating local market needs.

What Are We Looking For

Required

• Proven experience leading brand strategy and creative services, not just one or the other.
• Experience managing a creative team that includes outsourced, freelance, or agency resources.
• A track record of giving decisive, professional creative feedback, and standing behind it, even when the room disagrees.
• Demonstrated success managing multi-stakeholder brands.
• Experience overseeing integrated marketing campaigns and creative development
• Strong understanding of brand architecture, messaging, design systems, customer experience, and marketing strategy.
• Experience with brand research, audience insights, brand tracking, and performance measurement.
• Exceptional organization and the ability to triage competing priorities under deadline pressure.
• Comfort managing projects to a fixed budget and pre-set cost estimates, and communicating trade-offs clearly to stakeholders.
• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Design, Business, or a related field.
• 8-10 years of progressive experience in brand management, creative services, or marketing leadership.

Preferred

• Experience within an association, membership organization, or other complex, multi-stakeholder nonprofit brand.
• Experience supporting on-site brand activation at large conferences or member meetings.
• Familiarity with creative traffic or project management tools such as RoboHead.
• Experience working across global or multi-market regions.

What Success Looks Like

In your first 60 days, success looks like genuinely understanding ULI's brand and its audiences well enough to make sound calls without close supervision. From there, it's about relationships: earning the trust of the Creative Services team and its vendors, partnering effectively with strong internal stakeholders, and finding creative ways to meet stakeholder needs within real budget constraints. Over time, the clearest marker of success is consistency: everything ULI produces looks and sounds unmistakably like ULI, delivered on time, on budget, and at a high standard.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this position is $90,000 to $110,000. Actual compensation will be based on experience, education, skills, and other job-related factors. ULI offers a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, and life insurance; generous vacation leave; and a retirement plan with employer match.

Working Conditions

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is committed to shaping the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide, and we embrace our core values of integrity, collaboration, inclusion, and excellence in service to our members. In alignment with the Board of Directors' strong commitment to in-person collaboration, our roles require regular on-site presence to foster teamwork, innovation, and organizational effectiveness. ULI's primary workplace remains its offices, where in-person collaboration supports our mission and service to members. This role also requires domestic travel for pre-meeting site visits ahead of Spring and Fall Meeting; international travel is not expected.